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Topic: Bottling prep (Read 5437 times)

If I were looking to buy a bottle tree, I'd probably get this instead. I have a red bottle tree and it takes up space and only holds 45 bottles. An inconvenient number since a 5 gallon batch is ~52 12oz bottles.http://thefastrack.ca/homebrew/

The bottle tree was a huge leap forward for me in terms of convenience, but they sure do take up space.

I tend to leave it out and fill it with rinsed empties as I go. Every now and then I'll box those up and try to clear space.

For used bottles, clean them, put foil over the opening, and then bake for an hour at 375. Turn the oven off and take them out the next day, they will be sterile.

+1 for the oven method. I don't bother with the foil. I rinse the night before bottling day, pop them in the over and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or an hour or you know, whenever I remember to get up and turn off the oven. and leave them in there till bottling time. that oven and everything in it should be pretty close to sterile at that point.

The foil I'd for longer term storage. I do a case of bottles at a time in the oven, so not all get used soon.

Immediately after I pour a beer I rinse it in hot water until there is no foam/color/smell. I then inspect the bottle for anything that wouldn't rinse off and hit it with a bottle brush if needed. They air dry and I store them in empty cases or 6-packs loosely covered with a lid or foil.

On bottling day I use the dishwasher method. I run a rinse cycle on my empty dishwasher to get any residue of detergents rinsed out. Then I load it with bottles. I run a rinse cycle first (probably not necessary), then I run the Sanitize cycle. My kitchen is laid out pretty nicely for me to bottle sitting on the floor. I have my dishwasher in front of me, my bottling bucket on the island behind me, and I'm sitting on the floor on a towel (the towel is very important - you WILL spill beer). I have a small cup with Star San on the door of the dishwasher that I use to sanitize my caps.

I am sure I am not the first person to come up with this, but I did come up with it independently. I fill my bottles inside a cookie sheet. then I can just pick up the cookie sheet, toss it in the sink, and not worry about any sticky beer residue on the floor (which drives my wife crazy).

I am sure I am not the first person to come up with this, but I did come up with it independently. I fill my bottles inside a cookie sheet. then I can just pick up the cookie sheet, toss it in the sink, and not worry about any sticky beer residue on the floor (which drives my wife crazy).

I've been using a big square tupperware thing. It'll comfortably hold between 6 and 8 bottles with room to maneuver. I'm filling off a keg, so sometimes I get a fair bit of foaming before I get the caps on. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I've poured the spilled beer into a cup and enjoyed it...

Is this dishwasher method to clean just to save time? Wouldn't soap and water work? I've used a very mild "green" liquid dish soap to clean all equipment so far. Would this work for bottles?

The dishwasher is to sanitize, not clean. I clean the bottles first before storing them, and use the dishwasher to sanitize the day of. It works best for my schedule on bottling day. I load the dishwasher when I get home from work, then go pick up my son from preschool. Later on after I put my son to bed the bottles are ready to go. Since I don't need to sanitize them I can just pull them out of the dishwasher one-by-one as I'm bottling. Once I get a good rhythm going I can bottle a case in about 15 minutes, give or take.

I typically sanitize in iodophor, stack on my bottling tree and then begin bottling. I've not tried to break things up, but see where that could be more convenient. With my schedule, though, I'm usually bottling during the week and brewing when ever I get a free Saturday or Sunday. My two teenage boys really monopolize the weekends with sports, scouts, etc. So, even though it's a longer sessions it is the time I have available. maybe I'm just getting quicker with practice.

I'm starting to like the oven idea a lot.

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